The Way to Life: At the Heart of the Tao Te Ching

By: Benjamin Hoff

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Synopsis: Around 2,500 years ago, a man appeared at Han-ku Pass in northwest China, traveling toward the wilderness beyond the border. The Keeper of the Pass recognized the man known as Lao-tze, Old Master, and realized from his words that he did not intend to return. He begged Lao-tze to leave some of his guiding principles. After many refusals, Lao-tze gave in and wrote what he considered to be useful on some bamboo tablets. He presented these and resumed his journey, vanishing from sight. The statements he left behind have come to be known as the Tao Te Ching (Tao Virtue Classic), the book of Tao and its characteristics. Tao can roughly be described as the ways or laws of the life force found within all things at all times as well as the inner power itself, inseparable from its external actions. Literally, Tao means road, path, or way; following Tao can mean working with universal energy and its natural laws.